AREG is pleased to announce that our next guest speaker will be Peter VK3YE who will talk about operating on HF Pedestrian Mobile!
The date: Friday July 17th – 7.30pm ACST
For members, the meeting will again be held via Zoom streaming on the internet. We will again bring a visitors live stream via YouTube as well. (YouTube Link Here).
We hope you enjoy the presentation from our June meeting by Phil Lock and Bill Cowley on 21cm (1420MHz) Amateur Radio Astronomy (thanks to Hayden VK7HH’s Ham Radio DX Channel).
The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group will be held on Friday June 19th at 7.30pm ACST (1000 UTC). It will be held online due to the COVID-19 large gathering restrictions, which are still in force here in VK5.
AREG Members will be able to participate via Zoom while visitors will be able to watch the stream via Hayden VK7HH’s Ham Radio DX YouTube channel.
21cm Radio Astronomy
by Phil Lock and Bill Cowley
This month, we have as our guest speakers Phil Lock and Bill Cowley, talking about amateur radio astronomy.
Cheaper electronics has created great possibilities for amateur Radio Astronomy. This talk will describe a local project to receive and map the distribution of 21cm signals from neutral Hydrogen in our galaxy. We briefly describe the history of 21cm RA and why it’s still of great interest to astronomers. We outline some challenges over the last few years in assembling a 2m dish with custom feed, electronics and signal processing, then show recent results from our project.
The image above shows recent signals (May 17th) recorded over a 24 hour period for dish elevation of 53 degrees. The signal changes as the antenna points to different parts of the Milky Way.
The AREG committee is also looking to the future and is hoping as the situation continues to improve that we may be able to return to meeting in person by August (our AGM).
We hope you enjoy the video from tonight’s meeting.
Thanks again to Hayden VK7HH and his Ham Radio DX Channel for helping broadcast it via YouTube.
The May meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will again be held online this month due to the COVID-19 social distancing limitations. It will be held on Friday May 15th starting 7.30pm ACST using the Zoom video conferencing platform for AREG members. A YouTube Livestream via Hayden VK7HH’s HamRadio DX Channel will also be available.
The subject this month will be “FT8 DXing – How to get Started, Tips and Tricks” and will be presented by Grant VK5GR. The format will be based on a live look at FT8 on the air with interaction from members welcome. We will discuss the basics including getting the software installed, but will also explain how you read and position your signals on the band to maximize your chances of a successful QSO, showing you on air as we go.
This month, we will be introducing an extra dimension however, with the Zoom meeting also being Live-Streamed to Hayden VK7HH’s Ham Radio DX Youtube channel: (CLICK HERE – Hayden’s YouTube Channel).
This way we hope to make the evening accessible to a wider audience, not just AREG members. So if you are interested in some hints and tips for getting the most out of FT8 when DXing on HF why not tune in at 7.30pm ACST (1000 UTC) on Friday May 15th.
To help keep our members connected during this time of social distancing and COVID-19, the club is moving to increase the amount of on air contact opportunities. We are planning on holding an alternating on air net one week and a Zoom round-table chat on the alternate weeks.
The next event will be held this coming Friday, 8th May. Starting at 7.30pm it will be held on the club’s VK5RSB repeater 439.900 which will be linked to the IRLP network via node 6214 to reflector 9558 (which is also linked to the EchoLink node *VK3JED*
This will help to keep our interstate members connected too!
VK5RSB 70cm Coverage Map
The following dates will also have an on air net:
Visitor check-ins are most welcome on the on air nets. The net control station is VK5ARG.
In between the on air weeks, there will be a separate video round table using Zoom Meeting online for members only.
The club just held one of these which was hugely successful as everyone got to see, hear and participate in the free discussions that en-shewed. Members will be provided details of the Zoom logins for each of these on our internal mailing list.
Currently the next scheduled Zoom round table for members is May 29th, also starting at 7.30pm.
Details of our monthly meeting for this month are in a separate post.
We hope to see you all on the air!
This month the AREG will be taking it’s monthly lecture Online due to COVID-19. Dave VK5FDAN will be talking to us about Solar Cycle 25 and what we can expect HF to do as we come out of the current Solar Minimum.
While we experiment with various Online meeting platforms we have elected to limit our initial lectures to members only. I’m sure that once we have found our feet and have ironed out the bugs in our chosen system we can once again look at opening our doors to other interested Amateurs or groups in some form.
I know within our group we’ve wanted to look at online meetings and lectures since we have both international and interstate members, but for reasons it’s never happened. Times are certainly changing and the impetuous to do so is now. So please continue to watch this space…
From everyone within the AREG we wish you all the best, please maintain your social distance and stay safe !
UPDATE: March 22nd 2020 – Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the South Australian government now restricting interstate travel (requiring forced isolation for those arriving in the state), the VEA team has regrettably had to cancel the planned FCC exam session for April 4th in Adelaide.
VEA and AREG hope to reschedule this opportunity for later in the year once the restrictions have been lifted.
